Metro News & Reviews

Transportation headlines, Tuesday, April 27

Here’s a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the library’s blog. Don’t forget you can also follow the Metro Library on Facebook and Twitter.

The prospect of the Expo Line arriving in Culver City has developers clamoring to create a variety of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) projects around the Venice/Robertson Station. The location of the station happens to be in a sort of dead zone between a bustling downtown and a burgeoning retail/dining district just east of downtown – developers hope the TOD adjacent to the station will link these two areas and bring new energy to Culver City. Hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial and residential development are planned for the currently abandoned parcels around the future station – and local officials are allowing developers to build for higher densities than current zoning allows. The developments will also include hundreds of new parking spaces – something locals are probably happy to hear but a prospect that will likely anger TOD purists.

Here’s some more fuel for the old NYC vs LA debate: While New York City lost 2.7% of its transit riders in 2009, Metro has seen an uptick in ridership – with Metro Rail up 5% since March of last year. All rail lines with the exception of the Blue Line (already the second busiest light rail line in the U.S.) saw an increase in ridership. The Gold Line saw the greatest increases, no doubt due to the introduction of the Eastside Extension last fall. Bus ridership is also up.

Infrastructurist has come up with another cool infographic (and who doesn’t love a cool infographic) that visualizes gas consumption per capita for each state. The results are somewhat surprising. The states with the highest consumption per capita also happen to be some of the least populous. States with large populations – and thus higher overall gas consumption – tend to have lower per capita usage. New York is one such example – Infrastructurist says the state has low per capita gas usage. California has moderate per capita gas consumption. Wyoming wins with the largest per capita gas usage at 14 barrels per year.